The World and Everything in It: September 18, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like you. I'm Leah Savas, WORLD's Life Beat reporter...in a few minutes, I'll be back for a conversation about abortion on the November ballot. I hope you enjoy today's program. 

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning! 

Democracy’s on the ballot in November, so to speak, direct democracy, local policy questions that range from drugs to election security to abortion.

BAER: We need to be sober-minded about where the culture is.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Washington Wednesday, coming up. Also today, our weekly international news round-up on World Tour.

And later, the kind of mental toughness it takes to make the long mission to Mars.

BOWEN: The realization that you're just halfway, I think, is somewhat of an emotional low point.

And WORLD commentator Janie B Cheaney on the “anxious generation.”

MAST: It’s Wednesday, September 18th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

MAST: Time now for the news with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Garland, DeSantis on Trump attempt probes » After the second assassination attempt against Donald Trump in as many months … Attorney General Merrick Garland says the entire Justice Department is working to get answers …

GARLAND: … including in particular the FBI, the U. S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, the National Security Division are all coordinating closely with our local state law enforcement partners on the ground.

He said they will all work tirelessly to “determine accountability in this matter.” He added, “We will spare no resource in this investigation.”

Meantime, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says the state will conduct its own investigation. He said that’s due in part to the fact the federal government still hasn’t answered all of the questions related to the first attempt on Trump’s life back in July.

DESANTIS:  I think that that really erodes public confidence. Uh, and I think the Florida agencies working from local on up have an opportunity to do a thorough investigation and then to provide the truth.

DeSantis says the state has jurisdiction over the most serious alleged offense of attempted murder.

A 58-year-old suspect is behind bars after apparently staking out in a wooded area at Trump International golf resort preparing to take aim at former President Trump.

Lebanon exploding pagers » Officials in Lebanon say at least nine people are dead and thousands are injured after handheld pagers exploded simultaneously across the country.

According to some reports, the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah had ordered and received a new shipment of these pagers. Most of those hurt in the explosions are believed to be Hezbollah members, though a young girl is reportedly among the dead.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters Tuesday:

MILLER: We are gathering information on this incident. I can tell you that the U.S. was not involved in it. The U.S. was not aware of this incident in advance, and at this point, we are gathering information.

Hezbollah reportedly ordered the pagers to improve communications within its ranks amid growing conflict with Israeli forces. And the incident could disrupt the Iran-backed terror group’s communications network.

Israel has not commented on the incident.

UN fact finding mission Venezuela » Human rights experts with the United Nations are sounding alarms about abuses in Venezuela … under the regime of disputed President Nicolas Maduro.

Patricia Tappata Valdez is a member of the fact-finding mission on Venezuela. She said the Venezuelan government has tried to silence dissent … and has committed crimes against humanity following the highly suspect presidential election in July.

VALDEZ: Of the people detained in this period, many were subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as well as sexual violence, which was perpetrated against women and girls, but also against men.

And Chairwoman of the UN fact finding mission Marta Valiñas added that not only has the situation in Venezuela not improved …

VALINAS:  But the violations have intensified, reaching unprecedented levels of violence. In the post election context, we have documented 25 confirmed deaths, most of them young people under 30 years old.

After the July election, Opposition supporters published tally sheets from 80% of electronic voting machines suggesting rival candidate Edmundo González had won soundly.

But Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, which is closely aligned with the Maduro regime declared him the winner.

Retail sales numbers » Americans spent a bit more with retailers last month.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that retail sales ticked up 0.1% from July to August, just as the Fed considers the size of its expected upcoming interest rate cut.

Mark Hamrick is senior economic analyst with Bankrate.com.

HAMRICK:  We're in a falling inflation environment, but prices are still elevated. Interest rates will be coming down and those factors should continue to support consumers and spending. 

He said the one wild card is the future health of the job market.

The latest data indicate that consumers are still willing to spend more despite the impact of three years of excess inflation and higher interest rates.

Interest payments on the national debt top $1 trillion » Americans are not only spending more with retailers. They’re also spending more to foot the bill for overspending in Washington. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: American taxpayers shelled out more than a trillion dollars in fiscal year 2024, just to cover the interest payments on the national debt.

The Treasury Department reported payments of just over a trillion for the first time in history marking a 30 percent jump from last year.

The increase comes as the budget deficit continues to swell … and Washington continues to pile onto the national debt … which now tops $35 trillion dollars.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Boeing strike »  As Boeing machinists continue walking the picket line in Renton, Washington, the company says it's considering temporary layoffs to save cash. Boeing will freeze hiring and cut travel and spending on suppliers. Striking worker Rachel Ogg blames the previous CEO.

OGG: This was his mistake in the uppers. The hourlies didn't do this.

About 33,000 machinists are striking. They had asked for a 40 percent pay raise. Boeing offered them a 25 percent raise over four years.

Worker Greg Lathrop:

LATHROP: Their first contract offer was a complete insult.

A federal mediator has been brought in to help strike a deal.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Big issues on the ballot…on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

This is The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 18th of September.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Most of the attention in politics is rightly on the top of the ballot, who’ll be our next president? But toward the bottom voters find politics much closer to home.

MAST: You can find what’s on the ballot in your state in our newly expanded online election center wng.org/election24. More on that in a moment.

EICHER: The big local issues common to many ballots across the country this November are election integrity, drug policy, and abortion.

Today on Washington Wednesday: three WORLD reporters unpack the choices.

MAST: Up first, Life beat reporter Leah Savas to talk about the abortion measures. Good morning Leah!

LEAH SAVAS: Good morning!

MAST: Give us a quick overview, if you could. How many states will have abortion measures on the ballot, and would you label them mostly pro abortion or pro life?

SAVAS: So there are 10 states that have abortion on the ballot as of now for this November. Five of them are blue states and five of them are red states. So we have Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, New York and Nevada as our blue states, and then the red states are Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota. So there are actually 11 total ballot measures in these 10 states. Nebraska has two abortion related measures that will be on the ballot, and one of them is actually sponsored by pro-life groups. The other one is sponsored by pro-abortion groups. But that one pro-life ballot measure in Nebraska is the only pro-life ballot measure of all of these abortion related measures.

MAST: Can you tell us a little bit about the range of extremity on these measures?

SAVAS: Yeah, so pro-life groups in general see all of these as pretty extreme, regardless of the language, just because of all the loopholes in the language. A lot of the measures will say that they will establish a right to abortion up to the point of viability, but they do make such broad exceptions after the point of viability for like mental health or just health in general that's undefined, that it can be defined for to being anything. For instance, like, if you're stressed as a mother and you and you want an abortion, then you know, technically, could that qualify as a mental health exception a reason to approve the abortion. But there are a couple amendments that don't even use that language of viability or establish that so-called limit. For instance, Colorado and Maryland, they just assert a right to abortion in any circumstance, regardless of the point in pregnancy. It's just full stop, this would establish a right to abortion in the state constitution. So I would say those two are probably on the more extreme end, just because they don't even have the language of restrictions.

MAST: So what about pro life pushback on these? Leah, what's notable about the campaigns that you've seen?

SAVAS: I would say that most of the pro life pushback has happened, actually, before these amendments have even made it to ballots. So in states like Missouri and Florida, there were court challenges to try to prevent these from even getting to the ballots in the first place. So I think it's because pro-lifers know that once they get to the point of yes, this is going to be on the ballot, they can't outspend these pro-abortion groups who are very well funded. And I actually talked to Aaron Baer from the Center for Christian virtue in Ohio, he was a part of the campaign against the pro abortion amendment in that state, and he said this:

AARON BAER: Just lining up against Planned Parenthood and say, "We're gonna, we're gonna go toe to toe on TV advertising and try to match you on that," we just can't do it. They have so much more money. I mean, they just, they flooded the airwaves with ads.

SAVAS: So Aaron was pretty, actually skeptical about where voters fall on this issue of abortion when it comes to ballot measures. He was saying that a voter is presented with the question of, "Do you want to allow abortion for any reason or not allow abortion at all?" that they will tend to choose all abortion. So here's what he had to say.

BAER: It was jarring. You know, one out of three weekly attending churchgoers voted yes on the abortion amendment. Right? We need to be sober minded about where the culture is.

MAST: There’s a lot more tied up in that. Well, Leah Savas is WORLD’s Life Beat reporter…Leah thank you!

SAVAS: Thanks for having me on, Lindsay.

EICHER: On to voting. Several states are considering issues like ranked-choice voting … but the big issue on the ballot here is constitutional amendments prohibiting noncitizens from voting.

Leo Briceno from WORLD’s Washington Bureau is here now. Welcome, Leo.

LEO BRICENO: Hey, good morning.

EICHER: Let's start with the citizenship question, Leo. Of course, it’s illegal for noncitizens to vote, but there’s clearly more to this. What’s the issue, Leo?

BRICENO: Yeah. So there are two big questions that we really need to divide out when looking at this issue: there is the federal question, and then there's what are states doing about that federal question. So national voter law says that only citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections, right? Because of the statutes laid out in the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the Motor Voter Registration Act of 1993. Any application get this for a driving license also has to double for federal voting registration. But the issue with that the Republicans are picking up on and are pointing out, especially in the House of Representatives, is that the bar to get a driver's license is lower than that of actually requiring proof of citizenship. So when you go into the DMV and you get your license, basically all you're asked to do in order to attest to your citizenship is to check a box and say, Yes, I am a citizen of the United States. And without some sort of higher bar, or actually a more enforceable bar, Republicans fear that people that really shouldn't be voting in national elections, specifically noncitizens in this case, can walk into a DMV, check a box and walk out registered to vote. And so they want to implement something called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, otherwise known as the SAVE Act, that would require states to verify proof of citizenship before registering people to vote. So it'd be kind of an amendment to that older law, and that would just be, you know, states would have to require either a birth certificate or a passport or some other sort of proof before they go on to register people to vote.

EICHER: So that’s the federal level…what about states? How many states are putting this before voters this year?

BRICENO: There are eight states, Iowa, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin that are all considering adding a requirement in their state constitution that says, hey, just to be clear, only citizens are allowed to vote in our elections. And so it's a reflection of but a separate conversation than the one that's going on at the federal level.

EICHER: Leo Briceno covers politics from WORLD’s Washington Bureau … thanks.

BRICENO: You bet. Thanks.

MAST: Turning now to drug policy. Despite health warnings on the dangers of marijuana use. Twenty four states have legalized it, and another 14 have approved marijuana for medicinal purposes. This fall, legalization will be on the ballot for still more states.

Here now with more is WORLD executive editor for news, Lynde Langdon. Good morning, Lynde.

LYNDE LANGDON: Good morning.

MAST: Lynde, tell us first, which states are voting on marijuana initiatives and what are the stages of legalization in those states?

LANGDON: Lindsay, there are fewer states that are voting on marijuana usage than in years past, partly because there was a big wave of legalization that was successful that's now crested. But this year, there are three states voting on recreational marijuana use, that's North Dakota and South Dakota and Florida. And then in Nebraska, they're voting on medicinal marijuana use for the very first time.

MAST: Well, one of the big stories this year is that marijuana measure in Florida. It's got a massive war chest. Donald Trump actually endorsed it. He says it's a waste of taxpayer dollars to book adults who possess marijuana for personal use. Lindy, there are a lot of people who say lowering restrictions on marijuana is a net good. How has that played out, though, in the states that have legalized it?

LANGDON: Well, the arguments for legalizing recreational marijuana use mostly come from criminal justice advocates who say that harsh drug laws have resulted in over-incarceration and unfair punishment, particularly for poor people. And while it's true that incarceration rates have gone down in states that have legalized recreational marijuana use, there are a host of other issues that are cropping up really around the country.

What we're seeing is that marijuana use in general across the country is at an all time high among all demographics and age groups, and this is not a drug without risks. The risks involve a lot of emergency room trips and psychiatric hospital admissions that are on the rise for people who are having psychotic breaks due to potent marijuana use. There are other violent illnesses that people can come down with on this drug. It is addictive, and there's always the risk that once somebody uses marijuana legally, they then will turn to the illicit sale of marijuana to continue their habit and be exposed to all kinds of terrible addictive substances, the main one being fentanyl. So the idea that this helps a small portion of our society, it might be true, but the greater impact is that people have changed their attitudes, and they think that using marijuana is risk free and it's not.

Addie Offereins, one of our news reporters, spoke about this with Jim Kinyon. He's a leader in Catholic Social Services in South Dakota, and he says that the marijuana industry's claims about people getting arrested for possession of small amounts of weed ignores bigger problems.

JIM KINYON: There is not a single person locked up in the state of South Dakota for a minor amount of marijuana. Now, if they were on marijuana and they killed somebody in a traffic accident, they're probably in jail. If they beat their wife, they might be in jail, right? They had a full psychotic break. They probably end up in our psych ward. And I did a number of those evaluations, and the only drug on board was was marijuana. This is not our grandpa's marijuana.

MAST: So a lot of things playing together there tell us a little bit about other substances, like psychedelic drugs. Are there states taking those on as far as legalizing them?

LANGDON: Yes, this year, Massachusetts has a question on the ballot to authorize use of a group of psychedelic drugs. They're made from naturally occurring substances, most of the time, referred to as "magic mushrooms," but it's a hallucinogenic drug called psilocybin, and Massachusetts is considering allowing use of it at home and eventually in a network of therapy centers. Oregon and Colorado have already legalized the use of psilocybin, and it looks like this may be the next big thing when it comes to the decriminalization of drugs.

EICHER: Lynde, before we go, tell us a bit more about WORLD’s election guides…What's the goal there, and what can people find on the website?

LANGDON: Well, our reporters have done election guides in the past for states that were getting a lot of attention. Maybe they were swing states, or they had just national appeal in some of the things they were considering. And we got great reader feedback on those, and lots of people saying, well, what about my state? I want to know what's happening in my state. So this year, we're putting together guides for all 50 of our states, and we're just about finished compiling those. You can check them out at wng.org/election24, and the state guides have information about all of the key statewide races, ballot initiatives, federal elections, and even some do's and don'ts of voting in those states.

MAST: That’s it for this week’s Washington Wednesday.

Lynde Langdon is WORLD’s executive editor for news. Lynde, thank you so much for your time today.

LANGDON: You're welcome.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Oduah.

AUDIO: [Funeral hymn]

Uganda athlete’s burial — We take off today in Uganda at the funeral of an Olympic athlete.

Thirty-three-year-old Rebecca Cheptegei died from severe burns this month after her Kenyan former boyfriend doused her in gasoline.

Authorities said Cheptegei had just returned from church with her two daughters when the suspect—Dickson Ndiema Marangach—confronted her over a piece of land she bought in Kenya.

Marangach also died days later from his burns.

AUDIO: [Salute]

Cheptegei was also a sergeant in the Ugandan army and received a gun salute at her funeral.

She marks the third female athlete killed in Kenya since 2021.

Many Ugandan athletes train in neighboring Kenya to access better training facilities.

Joshua Cheptegei—an unrelated Olympian—said Rebecca influenced many people.

CHEPTEGEI: Rebecca had a following, especially being an athlete, an icon, and there are young people, and even the elderly who looked up to her.

Weeks before her death, Cheptegei recently competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics, finishing in 44th place.

AUDIO: [Floodwaters]

Myanmar flooding — Over in Myanmar—also known as Burma—residents are still reeling after Typhoon Yagi struck several Asian countries.

The storm brought floods and landslides that have killed more than 500 people across Burma, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.

In Burma alone, more than 200 people have died. Authorities said the storm has also displaced more than 320,000 people in the country.

An ongoing civil war that began three years ago had already displaced millions of people. The flood waters also washed out temporary homes at a displacement camp in eastern Karen state.

Belto—one of the camp’s residents—witnessed the disaster.

BELTO: [Speaking Burmese]

He says here that the floodwaters took away his home while his sister was inside.

Other regions are also battling with flooding. Storm Boris drenched Central and Eastern Europe while floods displaced thousands in Cameroon. And in Nigeria’s northeast Borno state, heavy rainfall caused a poorly managed dam to overflow, affecting about one million people.

AUDIO: [Chanting protesters]

Mexico protests — And in the Mexican city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, tens of thousands of Christians marched Friday to demand an end to violence.

Catholic leaders organized the inter-denominational “Pilgrim’s March for Peace.”

The churches in a joint statement said they wanted to stand up for victims who were murdered for not collaborating with criminals.

Back in May, 11 Christians were murdered after speaking against illegal exploitation at a mining site. The area has seen growing gang violence near its border with Guatemala.

Victor Hugo was one of the Roman Catholic priests who attended the march.

HUGO: [Speaking Spanish]

He says here that it’s important to work for a culture of peace in the state.

AUDIO: [Sound of traffic]

Germany border checks — We wrap up in Germany where police officers started wider border checks this week.

The extended checks now include shared borders with Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

It will last for an initial six months.

The measure comes as Germany has grappled with a series of extremist attacks in recent weeks.

Daniel Rosin is the German police spokesman.

ROSIN: [Speaking German]

He says here that the measure will limit illegal immigration and combat migrant smuggling.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser asked travelers to carry identification while traveling as she promised to minimize the effects of the new checks on people living and working in border regions.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Oduah in Abuja, Nigeria.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 18th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: pressing the human limits of space exploration.

NASA hopes to send humans to Mars within a decade.

It’s an enormous commitment. The trip is a billion miles. The estimated time is more than a year each way and that kind of frequent flying will take a toll on the body and mind.

Mock missions are helping scientists collect the information they need to make sure the astronauts are ready for the stress.

MAST: One of them is known as the CHAPEA Mission, standing for Crew Habitat and Performance Analog. It’s staffed by volunteers, not astronauts and it concluded in July.

The 2 women, 2 men crew lived as though they were on Mars for a year. WORLD Reporter Bonnie Pritchett explores what scientists found out and what they didn’t.

AUDIO: [Cheers, celebration]

BONNIE PRITCHETT: Kelly Haston and her fellow “Mars inhabitants” beamed as they finally exited the CHAPEA Mission 1 habitat at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. She addressed the small welcoming committee of family, friends and NASA personnel.

KELLY HASTON: Hello! It’s actually just so wonderful to be able to say “Hello” to you all [LAUGHS]...

For 378 days Haston couldn’t say that—at least not in real time.

SUZANNE BELL: We didn't allow that in CHAPEA, because that's not what we're expecting from Mars. It's impossible to have real time communication…

That’s Suzanne Bell. She leads the Johnson Space Center Behavioral Health and Performance Lab.

BELL: I oversee a team of scientists, and what we do is explore challenges related to future space exploration, in particular, related to the psychology of future space exploration…

She co-leads the CHAPEA experiments.

BELL: What we have done with Mission one, and what we're doing with future missions, is really putting crews and individuals in a context with heavily restricted resources – the resources we would expect them to have on a Mars surface habitat mission…

For instance, looking at how the crew will respond to limited living space, food selection, water, and communication with Earth.

Bell anticipates gathering a wealth of integrated data during the three, 1-year CHAPEA missions. They’ll guide everything from astronaut selection to daily task management.

Life in the CHAPEA habitat mimics life in isolated confinement. That’s one of the top five threats to human physical and mental health during long-term space missions. The remaining four include:

Space radiation.

Distance from Earth.

Gravity.

And a closed hostile environment.

Testing human physical and mental endurance to those threats is limited on Earth. Knowing they are safe from space hazards can affect the volunteers’ behavior. For example, the CHAPEA habitat is a 17-hundred square foot building nestled safely inside a warehouse.

BELL: To date anyway, we can't perfectly replicate all five of our major spaceflight hazards, right? We're not going to actively radiate people and put them in a hostile environment…

The International Space Station has its experimental limits. It orbits Earth just inside its protective magnetic field. And it’s much bigger than the Mars vehicle concept designs that will ferry 4 to 6 astronauts.

Since researchers can’t replicate the life-threatening hazards that can affect the crews’ health, what on Earth is analogous to living in an isolated, confined space? A place where stepping outside for a breath of fresh air isn’t an option?

GRANT KIDD: I think it's a really good question, because, I mean, I think that the big issue going forward with NASA is duration, how long they're going to be confined...

That’s Navy Captain Grant Kidd. He’s a neurologist stationed at the Naval Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City, Florida. He believes life aboard a submarine can simulate life in a space vehicle.

KIDD: There's times on a submarine mission where they'll commit to, for instance, going under the Arctic ice cap. Once they make that dive, they're not coming up. So, if there is an emergency, they've got to deal with it…

Because help isn’t coming.

As astronauts travel farther from Earth their connection to material and emotional support back home grows thin. That can compound an already stressful environment.

KIDD: This is kind of the realities of military life. Obviously NASA is looking to that for extended space travel. How are you going to deal with not being able to fix something if you've committed to, you know, an extended deployment. You're not coming up, you're not turning around…

NASA astronaut Stephen Bowen understands mentally preparing for sea and space exploration has its Earth-bound limitations. 

STEPHEN BOWEN: It's a really, really hard problem to solve.

He served 14 years with the U.S. Navy, including two, 100-day submarine deployments.

BOWEN: On the submarine training side, you know, we do a lot of shore training, and the crew member knows if they turn this valve on the shore, it's not necessarily hot steam behind it. That sort of thing. The consequences of the actions you have when you know it's a simulation: Your brain knows. And so you have to rely on people's understanding of the absolute consequences…

Bowen also flew 4 missions aboard the International Space Station. Last year, he spent 186 days in orbit.

BOWEN: What was interesting is that, since I had my previous experience from submarines, you kind of hit some of the same emotional touch points psychologically. But there's sort of this point somewhere about halfway. And the realization that you're just halfway, I think, is somewhat of an emotional low point…

The half-way point for a round-trip mission to Mars is about 13 months.

In April the hosts of a NASA podcast called “Houston We Have a Podcast” sent the CHAPEA crew questions and asked for recorded responses.

One question: “What would you look forward to if you were experiencing Spring.” Science officer Anca Selariu’s response reveals challenges of the mind and heart facing NASA researchers.

ANCA SELARIU: I really miss the biosphere, all the colors, all the smells, all the sounds of Earth. I miss wind and water in all forms and sun. And I've never in my entire life been so aware of my connection to Earth.

NASA is screening candidates for CHAPEA Mission 2 slated for next year. Mission 3 launches in 2027. Comprehensive data analysis won’t be available until all three missions conclude.

SELARIU: Why go to Mars? Because its possible…

From the CHAPEA habitat front stoop, the crew expressed gratitude for being selected to take this one step toward Mars.

Here’s Selariu.

SELARIU: I am astonished that I got to live at Mars Dune Alpha and that I got to contribute to the one thing that is dearest to my heart – bringing life to Mars.

Reporting for WORLD I’m Bonnie Pritchett in Houston, Texas.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 18th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney now with thoughts on what’s ailing the rising generation.

JANIE B. CHEANEY: Kids these days—we’re told they’re anxious, depressed, and suicidal, more so than teens at any other time in modern history. But sadly, surveys indicate there’s an age group even more anxious and depressed. It’s Young Adults: the high school and college grads recently launched into independence. Or rather, shoved before they’re ready, into a world that isn’t ready for them.

Think about it: from birth to around age 18, you're someone else's problem, namely your parents’. Then you slip the loop and become your own problem. Traditionally, the 20s are when crucial decisions come thick and fast, such as the choice of a life partner, or a career, or when to start a family. The 20s are when you make the choices that you’ll spend your 30s and 40s learning to live with.

I launched upon my own adulthood by dropping out of college to marry a young man who soon after dropped out of grad school. Those were dark days in U.S. history, what with domestic terrorism, Watergate, Nixon’s resignation, double-digit inflation, and the Arab oil embargo. But we owned no radio or television and remained blissfully unaware of most of the news.

We moved from Texas to Tennessee to California to New Mexico and back to Texas with everything we could stuff into a 1963 Volkswagen bug. Casually making choices that would later make us. But young-adult choices seem weightier now than they used to be. An extensive Harvard study conducted in 2022 found almost a third of participants in the 18 to 24 age range reporting depression and anxiety. A Gallup poll from last year found the under-30 crowd as the age group most likely to feel disconnected and lonely.

The normal goals of young adulthood are drifting out of reach for many: rising rents break the budget, rewarding work is harder to find, meaningful relationships are difficult to forge, especially in the absence of supportive communities like church. I also wonder if a lot of young adults have built up grandiose expectations for the future without preparing for mundane necessities like doing their own laundry. If Mom still picks up dirty clothes for the roughly half of 18 to 24 year-olds living with their parents, those skills may remain in limbo.

Besides all that, the world is too much with them, to paraphrase William Wordsworth. It’s a scary place, especially for those without a sense of community and purpose. Young adults report worrying about gun violence, climate change, crime, raging political feuds, corruption in government, and everything else that fills 24-hour news cycles and social-media feeds.

“Just grow up” is cold advice. When my husband and I were learning to be grown ups, our parents and church community provided practical help like loans, short-term work, and godly counsel.

Growing up has always been hard, but it’s harder in different ways today, and Baby Boomers and GenXers have failed to provide a stable launch pad. Lord willing, today's young adults will eventually launch, but in the meantime they deserve our sympathy. And sometimes a helping hand.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Another assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Is it now time to reform the Secret Service? We have a report. That and much more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Jesus said: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” —John 14:15

Go now in grace and peace.

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